Title :
Micro-Cathode Arc Thruster for small sattelites attitude control
Author :
Shashurin, Alexey ; Zhuang, Taisen ; Lukas, Joseph ; Teel, George ; Haque, Showera ; Chiu, Dereck ; Keidar, Michael
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Mech. & Aerosp. Eng., George Washington Univ., Washington, DC, USA
Abstract :
Summary form only given. A low-mass, low-volume propulsion subsystems based on electrically activated micro-thrusters that utilize chemically-inert solid propellants are beneficial for small satellite attitude control applications. Micro-thrusters are able to deliver small impulse bits of about several μNs to satellites and characterized by simplicity, scalability, low cost, low weight and high reliability. In this work measurements of the key parameters of micro-Cathode Arc Thruster (μCAT) are presented and μCAT performance compared with other commercially available thruster technologies operating at the same power range.
Keywords :
aerospace propulsion; artificial satellites; attitude control; propellants; μCAT; chemically-inert solid propellants; electrically activated microthrusters; low-mass propulsion subsystem; low-volume propulsion subsystem; microcathode arc thruster; sattelites attitude control; Attitude control; Electrostatic measurements; Plasma measurements; Plasmas; Propulsion; Satellites; Temperature measurement;
Conference_Titel :
Plasma Sciences (ICOPS) held with 2014 IEEE International Conference on High-Power Particle Beams (BEAMS), 2014 IEEE 41st International Conference on
Conference_Location :
Washington, DC
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4799-2711-1
DOI :
10.1109/PLASMA.2014.7012226
